Improvement in automatic toy dancers



L. HuBeELL. Aute-matic Toy Dancers.

Patented Feb. 17. 18M,

UNITED STATES ATENT Eric.

WILLIAM L. HUBBELL, or BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN AUTOMATIC TOY' DANGERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N0. 14%558, dated February 17, 1874; application tiled January 22, 1874.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, WILLIAM L. HUBBELL, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Toy Dancers, of which the following is a specification:

Toy dancers have been made with jointed iigures moved by or upon a vertical rod, so as toperform various grotesque movements; and the figure has also been placed at the end of a spring-arm actuated by an escapement.

M y invention is adapted especially to the moving of pairs of Igures in dancing and waltzing; and consists in a rocking escapement-lever and pendulum combined with loose vertical wires, that carry at their upper ends the dancing ligures, and when these figures are used in pairs they are held by a cross-bar, that passes through the gures near the shoulders. The figures have jointed legs, and the vertical wires are revolved by the inclination of the igures, producing a pawl action of the legs upon the platform upon which they dance.

In the drawing, Figure l is an elevation of the apparatus with the front of the case removed to show the mechanism, and Fig. 2 is a side view of the mechanism.

The train of gearing a is actuated by a spring, b, and drives an escapementwheel, c, that gives a rocking movement to the lever el, and from this lever d an arm, e, extends upwardly to the rod fi of the pendulum L'. rlhis pendulum, in swinging, insures the proper movement of the parts, as its inertia overcomes any slight rcsistance from the ligures or the moving parts.

The spring is to be wound up from time to time, and the mechanism is within the case g, the top Zot' which forms a platform for the dancers. The vertical rods a pass through the platform Z, and through eyes at the ends of the levers d, and the 'nuts o serve to raise Or lower those rods, and adjust the dancing iigures, so as to act correctly in relation to the platform.

One or more jointed gures may be applied to each rod u.l l have shown pairs of suclrgnres at s s and tt. They are held in place by the cross-pieces a r, that pass through the figures at or near the shoulders 5 and by this means the figures may be properly positioned, and the movement that is given to such figures is very amusing, and especially so to children, for the figures jump up and down, and the legs act as pawls to force the figures around and rotate the vertical rods n.

I claim as my invention- Y l. The lever d, operated by clock-work, and controlled by an escapement, in combination with the pendulum 7c, vertical rods n, and dan cing ligures, substantially as set forth.

2. The figures s t, united in pairs to the wires n by means of the cross-bars a t, in combination with the lever d and adj Listing-nuts o, substantially as set forth.

Signed by me this' 19th Vday Of January, A.

WM. L. HUBBIELL. Ti tnesses:

GEO. T. PINOIINEI', Unas. H. SMITH. 

